While reading last week’s blog posts on Pokémon Go, I noticed that the
topics of Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality came up quite a few times. I
was inspired to dig further into some real-world and practical applications of
Virtual Reality, and came to find that Virtual Reality can change lives. This
blog post focuses on one mechanism by which Virtual Reality is making the world
a better place: in the treatment of phobias.
From fear of flying, heights, driving, or spiders, exposure
therapy can be used to treat phobias through the use of virtual reality.
Virtual reality exposure therapy places the client in a computer-generated realm,
where they “experience” various stimuli related to their disorder. The client
receives visual and audio cues through wearing a head-mounted display with
small TV monitors and stereo earphones. The
therapist and client then work together to create a hierarchy of
anxiety-inducing situations.
In careful, controlled stages, the client is exposed to
these virtual experiences that elicit increasing amounts of anxiety. Each stage
can be repeated until the client is comfortable with each experience. If the
anxiety becomes overwhelming, the client can return to a less stressful level
of treatment, or just remove their headpiece and exit the virtual world.
Virtual reality is made possible by the field of computer
science. VR is a computer technology that uses software-generated realistic
images, sounds, and other sensations to replicate an environment, and simulates
a user’s physical presence in this environment, allowing the user to interact
with the space. In this case, the computer receives input information from the
motion sensors on the headset monitor (using LEDs), which pick up the user’s
movement to adjust the screen accordingly. The headset contains a single custom
motherboard, which includes an ARM processor and control chips for the LEDs.
Also included is the “Adjacent Reality Tracker”, which features a magnetometer,
a gyroscope, and an accelerometer, which combine to accurately track the
movement across all three dimensions in the 3D world. The large amounts of data
are continually sent back and forth between the positional tracker, the
headset, and the computer in its software—resulting in a smooth and realistic
VR experience. By creating a safe and realistic space for clients to face their
biggest fears, Virtual Reality could positively influence the lives of many.
References:
I learned about how virtual reality can help people with phobias in a psych class I took last year and I thought it was so interesting. It's incredible how they can make virtual reality so realistic that the person really feels like they are facing their fear, whatever that may be. It's awesome to hear about how computer science is being used to help people in need.
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